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#SalimbalSketches returns! It's been a while since the Oscars -- guess you can tell we've all been kind of buried in work -- but for those of you planning a movie marathon over the next few days (the tail end of Holy Week is a public holiday in the Philippines) here are some tributes by Salimbal members to their favorite films of 2014… and a picture of a girl and a dog form Cristina, because when she saw "Best Picture" as our theme, she immediately thought that it simply must be an image of a cute dog with a cute girl. Never change Tina ;)

What if the creatures from Philippine folklore — the tikbalangs, nuno, kapre — were inspired by sightings of actual alien races? That’s the question that fuels the Mythspace stories.

In "Unfurling of Wings" part 1 (of 2), Ri-En, Books, and Zu are orphans who eke out a living in the slums of an aging space station, under the protection of their mentor, Ka-Ang. But Ka-Ang’s health is deteriorating, and the three friends hatch a desperate plan to save him — one which places them on a collision course with the station’s worst criminal gang, as well as one of the dreaded, immortal, Sixths.

Art by Borg Sinaban and Story by Paolo Chikiamco

Reading Notes: A stand-alone story, which spotlights the Tan'gal race (to which Val-is-ya, from the Lift Off stories, belongs) and their unique biology. The target of the heist in the story also ties in with a plot point from Lift Off.

Folklore Notes: The Tan'gal are based on the Manananggal, or Viscera-suckers, of Philippine folklore, known for their ability to self-segment.

"This comic book story is so disturbing it made me want to watch "Frozen" twenty times just so I'll feel happy again. THE FRIENDZONE... is one of the best horror stories I've read this year." - Budjette Tan (Trese)

There's a line that divides one's friends and one's lovers, or so some say. A space of heartbreak and heart-blindness, or guilt and patriarchal coercion, depending on whom you believe. But to pull someone across this place... this Zone... may be more horrible than any truly understand...

Part of the Shiver, Jangle, and Spin trilogy of short horror comics, "The Friendzone" is the second collaborative work under the Studio Salimbal banner by the duo of Noel Pascual (Crime-Fighting Call Center Agents) and Mervin Malonzo (Tabi Po)."

Kapre. Nuno. Manananggal. They are monsters of the past, remnants of primitive fantasies.

UFOs. Aliens. Extraterrestrials. They are hallucinations, creations of modern science fiction.

Or are they? Evidence unearth is debunked…or disappears. Witnesses who speak are ridiculed…or silenced.

We are alone, say our leaders. There are no Manananggal that consume our children. There are no Kapres who watch in the night. There are no aliens that abduct our neighbors. There are no UFOs with dazzling lights.

We were never alone. These are not your Lola’s monsters. These are not your children’s aliens.

They are one and the same. They are here. Mythspace features a young Filipino searching for his family, in a galaxy populated by the aliens that inspired his culture's legendary monsters; a galaxy where Earth is a quarantined backwater, and any humans found off-planet are considered to be slaves or terrorists.

"It was a dark and stormy night..." No one starts stories that way anymore. Just like no one believes in the monsters of old anymore. But sometimes, the old forms exist for a reason, and the old stories reveal hidden truths... for it's during those dark and stormy nights when the old stories come true...

Part of the Shiver, Jangle, and Spin trilogy of short horror comics, "The Other Half" is the first collaborative work under the Studio Salimbal banner by the duo of Noel Pascual (Crime-Fighting Call Center Agents) and Mervin Malonzo (Tabi Po)."